Update - Sat 5th Oct, 2019 14:15 BST: In the final hour we got another glimpse of Pikachu and this was followed by two of the supposed Galarian Ponyta appearing on the screen. The one on the left lit up (see the image above) and the one on the right apparently doesn't have a tail. The stream eventually cut out, and then all that could be heard was galloping and a Pokémon cry, which is believed to have been the sound of a Rapidash (thanks again, Serebii.net). It then ended!

Original Story - Sat 5th Oct, 2019 12:50 BST: We're now officially down to the final hour of 24-hour Pokémon Sword and Shield stream, showcasing live footage from the Glimwood Tangle forest in the Galar region.

So far we've seen Pikachu, Morelull, Swirlix, Phantump, Impidimp, Cottonee, Shinnotic, and we've also caught a glimpse of a rainbow colour horse-like creature that is reportedly a Galarian form of Ponyta (thanks, Serebii.net). Oh, and there's been a mysterious dog-like shadow appear from time to time.

The question is – what do you think we'll see in the final hour? Will we get a look at one of the legendaries in the Galar region? Could it perhaps end with a new trailer? Will The Pokémon Company announce a demo is now available to download?

To be honest, we've likely gone mad at this stage staring at the same screen for hours on end, so it's probably best to just wait and see what happens. For all we know, the stream might just switch off and that's that. Fingers crossed, though, that it ends with something special!

When he’s not paying off a loan to Tom Nook, Liam likes to report on the latest Nintendo news and admire his library of video games. His favourite Nintendo character used to be a guitar-playing dog, but nowadays he prefers to hang out with Judd the cat.

I stuck around for an hour last night trying to keep my fellow no-livers amused. (much love lol)

I don't think I have ever wanted to see a swarm of Zubat so badly in my life.

What a dull and stupid marketing exercise. Initially, I was under the impression that we were going to see 24 hours of gameplay footage (albeit limited to a couple of early routes to avoid giving too much away). If anything, I suspect that this endeavour would have only served to put more people off from the games. This reminds me that "bonus episode" of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad that was included with the first of the four Futurama movies on DVD back in the day, and it had a similar gimmick, though that ran at a comparatively merciful 22 minutes.

I think this is a really neat marketing strategy, and I could see this being a tactic where they could pull in other regions of the game as well.

Except that in actuality there's not nearly enough substance in this stream to really make this idea work. A for effort, but F for being entertaining. I'm going to go watch a nest of owl eggs to see when they'll hatch, now

24 hours just to see a Ponyta with fluff and a horn instead of fire. I mean I like the new Pokemon I think it's really cute but yeah considering the hype this was very disappointing. People are saying it was supposed to simulate real life wildlife research which I agree with, to an extent, wildlife research is interesting but this is video game marketing it's supposed to get people interested not send them into a coma.

It was a complete waste of our time. It should have been maybe 10 hours at max and still had all of the “sightings” on offer. I hope this never happens for another gen, and once again this is a bad idea from GameFreak. They just can’t get anything right lately can they?

I thought it was fine. I really just wish we’d seen the ponyta (and other species) interacting more with each other. Ponyta, at least, are supposed to be herd creature, right? At least we got some of that at the end. (Two floofs does not a herd make. Although I would also like to petition that we rename Gen VIII Gen FLOOF. We’ve got Wooloo, Cottonee, Alcremie, and now Galarian Ponyta... there’s so much floofiness in this Gen.).

Also, it probably would have been better to have shortened it to four hours or so. I think it was good that it tried to mimic actual wildlife observation studies but the gamer mentality isn’t as patient on average as that of the scientist.

Rainbow Galarian Ponyta made this stream that I was completely uninterested in 100% worth it.

Was it excessive? Yes. The complaints are valid. But one thing they did right was build up toward Galarian Ponyta. Instead of just coming out in a trailer and revealing it outright, they kept us guessing for hours. Could they have done it another way? Probably. But I don't even care at this point, because I got my rainbow Ponyta that I've wanted forever!

Besides it kinda looking like the famous toy, I do like Galarian Ponyta. I was actually lucky enough that I forgot about this stream and watched only the last 10 minutes. I feel real bad for those people who stayed up all night for this.

This was pointless but it did its job. People are talking about it. In the end that's what marketing is meant to do.

Personally, My Little Ponyta is super cute and I can't wait to see was Gallarian Rapidash is gonna look like!

Right now, I feel like it's pure fairy. I'd have prefered Fire/Fairy or Fairy/"something else" but it is still real neat! If it is pure fairy type, I really hope they've added a new physical fairy move for it to learn at the lower levels.

If it only has play rough, then this will be another one trick pony... Just like the original Rapidash, which just had flare blitz, mega horn and, like, stomp...

It's a cool reveal - I like what we've seen of Galarian Ponyta - and I liked the "live" footage idea, but...for 24 hours? I let the stream run on a separate monitor at work yesterday and didn't see much. Other than Pikachu, some Morelull, a couple of cries, and a bush that waggled now and again, I didn't see much. I figured that news sources were a better bet to get any news from.

I just did what I do with every nature livestream, waited for someone to post the exciting bits on YouTube or Reddit. That Ponyta was up on Reddit like 60 seconds after it showed up "on camera".

This was an excellent marketing gimmick, though. It doesn't even matter to them if people were actually watching the stream or doing what I did. The goal was to have people talking about it, and here we are.

@gloom But it didn't "just make viewers mad", because hardly anybody was actually sitting there watching the whole thing (I mean, did ANYBODY actually do that? 24 hours in front of your screen waiting for a rare Pokemon to show up?)

Judging by the responses everywhere I've looked, most people are excited by the Ponytas, and talking about the possibility of a whole Fairy type forest, and maybe Rapidash will evolve into an alicorn, and whatnot. That's what Nintendo wanted.

I tuned in on here, thought I was early or was witnessing an interval when nothing happened, so came back some number of hours later and figured I missed it... The chat wasn't working on here so I went to YT and saw people talking about how something "might" happen then some girl came bsck and was like "What did I miss?!?!" And so I came up with some elaborate story of Dittos transforming into sudowoodos and other mon and said it was the best and most mind blowing thing I'd ever witnessed. It changed my perspective on life... She was asking for more details and was annoyed at how she missed "the best bit". Really it was all equally bad. So, then I knew I'd had the maximum amount of fun that stream would give me and swiftly exited, waiting for a catch up I knew NintendoLife would provide. Many thanks.

While I 100% understand and even agree with some on the cynicism towards Sword and Shield's development, I can't wrap my head around the people saying this was a waste of time and should've been cut down significantly.

Did... did y'all really think they intended for everyone to watch the whole thing or something?

@LowRyder Most of us didn't watch all or most of it that's true. People are annoyed with the quality of it. That's not hard to understand. You got a new region with new pokemon, show off the new pokemon. 10 minutes of showing off lots of new things, is going to have more of a positive impact then showing off 24 hours of barely anything.

This was a great idea in theory, and getting players together like this had a fun community feeling to it, but like others have said, the execution was extremely flawed.

Yes, it was simulating a nature cam, and sometimes in nature not a lot happens in a static area, but the difference is that this is not real nature, and they are in full control of everything that happens. If they do this again, then Game Freak needs to invest in more model rendering and more interactions instead of looking at a stagnant, glowing wallpaper for 5 hours straight, followed by one single Phantump floating by, followed by 2 more hours of absolutely nothing.

I probably watched if for less then 5 mins.... nd thought. Yea, the loop of the same cords in music and looped background noise was just not enough for me to stay interested. If they had actual muaic, then I would of played it in the background. Good thing I had homework to distract me haha. The fairy Ponyta is cute!

@Tempestryke I think a certain level of disappointment is understandable sure. Myself somewhat included in that camp as well. Some reactions rub me the wrong way however, such as using this as another example of Gamefreak's deteriorating quality. Sure only one new Pokemon was shown, but the actual presentation and animation quality during certain points was quite nice.

I'm not necessarily really trying to defend Gamefreak here either. I think they should be criticized 100%, however they should be criticized when it's warranted, otherwise the fanbase just comes across as whiny babies any time they do literally anything. Peeps should save the soapbox complaints for when it is truly warranted, and this is not one of those times if you ask me.

One thing I must commend Game Freak for is that seemingly for the first time in many years, they haven't already shown off literally everything and everyone in the new games months before the games are released. In previous years, there have been endless trailers and articles full of "hey, here are all the new Pokémon", but this time they've barely shown off anything. That, at least, is a change for the better.

I'm not necessarily against the run time. I get it was probably set up that way to allow everyone around the world to have an opportunity to watch. But at the same time, there was way too much dead air and could have used quite a bit more activity.

Especially considering there's a huge part of the fanbase that doesn't necessarily have the patience to wait 45 minutes for a Pokémon to appear

That new Pokémon certainly looks like a Galarian Ponyta, but what if it isn't? I mean, the only similarities I can find with Ponyta are the basic shape and eyes, and for some reason one of them doesn't even have a tail!

And if it was a Galarian Ponyta, what if its evolution isn't actually a Galarian Rapidash? What if... okay, enough is enough.